SYSTEM 7 - 2008 RECORDS

System 7 Phoenix - to be released January 28th 2008

Now available for pre-order from our own webshop. Click on the A-Wave.com button if you wish to pre-order online. The A-Wave webshop page is now hosted by planetgong.co.uk. To check the details of Planetgongs's online sales system please read this.

Phoenix (AAWCD012) is the new System 7 album - inspired by the manga graphic novel series "Phoenix" by Osamu Tezuka - one of the founding fathers of Japanese manga culture. We've collaborated with Son Kite, JamEl Mar, Eat Static, Slack Baba, Daevid Allen of Gong and Japanese bass player Mito from the band Clammbon . The Phoenix music portrays, in a variety of ways, travel through time and space, life, death and rebirth, with each track inspired by characters or images from the books, and described in the 12-page booklet that comes with the CD. The new album - titled “Phoenix” - will be released in the UK and Europe on January 28th 2008. Here is the Tracklisting with sound samples:-

The project grew from a meeting we had a few years ago with Tezuka’s daughter Rumiko Tezuka who has her own techno label Music Robita in Japan. Rumiko had come to us with the suggestion that System 7’s sound would fit perfectly with her father’s Phoenix stories and his universal message. The resulting album release is a collaboration between Music Robita and System 7’s own label A-Wave.

“We cannot all go into outer space to glimpse a planet where shared human goals can be achieved by peaceful cooperation. But when we look at photos of our blue orb hanging in space with no national boundaries cut into its surface and the white cloak of clouds enveloping it, we too are moved by the earth’s unity.” B.K.S. Iyengar – “Light on Life”

1. PLANET 7 From a dreamy
and mysterious start this coalesces into one of the phattest and most infectious
bass grooves we've ever succeeded in getting on record. Illustrating our position
on the 2004 techno genre map in a space between prog-house and psy-trance the
track is enriched with our trademark echo guitar and psychedelic keyboard loops.
Planet 7 also employs a cleared sample from Sander Kleinenberg's "My Lexicon"
to emotional effect, and is being released as a 12" single with remixes by James
Holden and Son Kite.

2. BEWITCHED Another track
that we are particularly proud of. This builds from a cinematic intro into another
giant techno/trance groove that gets to an intense filtered peak with screaming
guitars and then drops over the edge into a lush breakdown. Bewitched was inspired
by our visits to the Mexican pyramids of Coba and also has some tongue-in-cheek
references to the popular 60s TV series.

3. BACK TO REALITY In some ways this track is the closest on the album
to psy-trance, but is not a typical psy-trance track in the same way that System
7 are definitely not typical psy-trance producers. Starting with strange and
warped vocal samples that sound a bit like psychedelic reptiles this builds
to an intense acid climax before relaxing into a mysterious and dreamy end groove.

4. OCTOPUSSY This started
as an electro track but soon became invaded by strange aquatic creatures, and
so "Octopussy" was born. System 007 - license to chill!

5. BASSROCK This is a new track using some sounds first used on a track
from the first System 7 album in 1991 in collaboration with Alex Paterson, who
is credited here as a co-writer. Another exploration of the interesting territory
between prog house and psy-trance, this track also has an openly old school
bleepy rave feel to it that pays homage to the original acid-house explosion
of the late 80s. "A revolution in attitude - a revolution in consciousness."
- a concept that is ever more needed today in this time of senseless wars and
global stupidity.

6. KUPURI "Kupuri" is
a word from the language of the Mexican Huichol Indians, meaning the power to
to follow your heart path to completion. The groove of this song is inspired
by the ragga "Diwali riddim" mixed with Middle Eastern percussion. Rather than
an ambient track we see this track as a slow spacey techno track. Fans of glissando
guitar please note - there is a rather tasty glissando performance on this piece.

7. GAZED AND DIFFUSED Featuring a major slice of Steve's unique echo
loop guitar style this track develops into a full-on trancy groove. An earlier
version of this track has been part of our live set for the last couple of years.

8. DANCE OF THE DEER This is the most house influenced track on the
album, with a chunky beat and funky guitar and keyboard riffs and a shimmering
spacey keybard sequence that dives in and out. The title is influenced by Huichol
Indian imagery, for whom the deer is a very special animal.

9. EUROPA (BLUE) This is reworking of a composition that first appeared
on the System 7 album "Power of Seven". Although it starts like an ambient track
it slowly builds into an emotional melodic groove monster, ending up with a
full-on lead guitar solo. Another genre-defying moment.

The album artwork is based on a Huichol Indian yarn painting we bought from
the Huichol themselves at Coyoacan, Mexico DF in 1999. We've added to our website
3 pages giving details of the Huichol culture of shamanism:-

2002 was the second year of releasing new material on our label .
The 2002 release is in fact a combination of old and new - it is a compilation
of all the tracks System7 has made with Derrick
May including unreleased material, remixes and remastered versions
of the originals. UK release was July 22nd 2002.

1. Altitude - Mayday Mix
This is one of the first tracks we did with Derrick ­ in September 1990. It
featured on the first System 7 album, released on 10 Records (Virgin) in September
1991. This is not the album mix but Derrick's own club mix, that originally
appeared on the Altitude double pack in April 1992, together with other remixes
and a vocal remix featuring Ultra Nate.

2. Mysterious Traveller ­ Groovy
Intent Mix This is a System 7 remix of one of the tracks we made with
Derrick for the 1994 System 7 album Fire and Water. This remix gives the track
a more housey feel, while retaining all of the original parts. We did the remix
in February 2002.

3. Big Sky City - Mayday Mix This was a big track for System 7 and was
the result of our collaboration with Derrick in 1995 for the Power of Seven
album. This is the original version and is Derrick's own mix.

4. Icon ­ Montage Mix (Rhythim is Rhythim) This is one of Derrick's
own tracks, and it was made in 1992, after his first collaborations with System
7. This version originally appeared on the vinyl-only compilation Virtual Sex
in 1993 and has never been released on CD before. We love it and feel it fits
really well with the System 7 tracks. Icon has been licensed from Derrickšs
label Transmat and was released under Derrick's artist name Rhythim is Rhythim..

5. Prototype 1 ­ Electron Mix
This track was originally an early idea in our sessions with Derrick in 1990
that never got completed and up to now has never been released. We always intended
to make a final version and we finally managed it in February 2002. This mix
is a bit electro-orientated and manages to feature really well Derrick's original
live keyboards.

6. Fractal Liaison This short piece featuring just Derrick's keyboard
and Steve's guitar was taken from jam recorded directly to DAT in the 1990 sessions.
This originally appeared on the first System 7 album, released 1991.

7. Mysterious Traveller ­ Fire Mix This is the original version of the
track Mysterious Traveller that appeared on the Fire Album ­ one half of System
7's 1994 dual album Fire and Water.

8. Big Sky City ­ Above the Clouds
Mix This remix, the third of the three new ones we made in Feb 2002,
goes for a chunkier, more solid rhythmic feel coupled with a dreamy approach
the keyboards, including both Derrick's original parts and some new parts from
Miquette.

9. E-Merge In a way balancing the inclusion of Derrick's own track
Icon, we have included one wholly new System 7 track that fits in with the overall
picture. A chunky groove underpinning some oddly random sequenced arpeggios.

10. Overview A softer more moody piece featuring Derrick's bendy keyboards
and some floating lead guitar from Steve. This is the original version from
the Fire album (1994).

MP3and Real Audio extracts will be posted on our site second week July.

Autumn 2001 we released SEVENTH
WAVE the first new System 7 album for several years and the first album
of new material on our new label A-Wave. The UK release date was September 24th
2001. For details of distribution outside the UK click
here.

The eight tracks comprise a cocktail of driving techno, spacey housey grooves
and funky ambience. One of the tracks is a collaboration with Alex Paterson
of The Orb. Click here to hear exerpts of some tracks in streaming
Real Audio and downloadable MP3.

It was released in the UK on September 10th, and is getting good club play.

In the UK we have a strong distribution deal with Pinnacle and people should
have no difficulty finding the album and single. A Japanese release of Seventh
Wave is coming out on Sept 22nd on the Beat label. The album is also being releasaed
in Belgium and Holland by PIAS, and we are currently concluding licensing arrangements
for the USA and other territories.

Here are some additional track by track notes on Seventh Wave :-

1. Manik Shamanik
This track was co-written and produced with French DJ Bruno Catala who also
works with Rhinocerose. If one of the themes of the album is "house meets trance"
then this track is the prime example. It starts in a more housey vein, evolves
to a strong climax and ends with a deep trancey hypnotic groove. With rich spacey
tones that move in an around the groove, this track is a prime example of what
we regard as our unique and ever evolving sound. Like several of the album tracks
this one has been evolved from earlier versions that we have tried out in our
live set.

2. High Plains Drifter
In many ways this track is our main dance-floor statement on the album, again
using some of our trademark sounds in a driving and exciting way.

3. 7 O'Clock Another
track that has been in our live set for some time, combining the trancey housey
theme with a tribal voodoo element. It also uses some samples of Alex Paterson's
mad answer machine messages (ssh! we haven't told him yet).

4. Soft Rain Another
great co-production with our arch collaborator Alex Paterson. Rich ambience
and a funky breakbeat groove. We have also made a no-drums fully ambient mix
that is being released as a bonus track on the Japanese version of Seventh Wave.

5. Sal Del Mar Undoubtedly influenced by our frequent trips to
Ibiza this is a prime example of our newly invigorated ambient house style,
combining a funky conga-led groove with beautiful chiming chords. We started
our live set at the Japanese Sacred Music Festival at Hiroshima with this track
as the sun set over the bay - it went down an absolute storm. This track is
one for the beach!

6. Varkala An example of the full-on trancey side of our equation.
Along with the churning keyboard sequences this track features samples of Indian
shenai horn players which we recorded ourselves in Kerala, South India, at a
festival with 57 elephants.

7. The Abyss Another collaboration with Bruno Catala, this is
a deep dark steamy moody ambient track.

8. Chiringuito We chose to end the album with what we feel is
our finest housey track to date, expressing among other things our deep and
undying love for the sprit of dance music and our hopes for a better world.

Our first A-Wave release was a 12" of our most successful track Alphawavefeaturing the classic Plastikman mix in its full 19 minute glory plus a
2 brand new System 7 2000 remixes. Click here to hear the a-side track in streaming
Real Audio and downloadable MP3.

For a further discussion of what we mean by Alphawaves, which we have employed
to deep effect on new tracks such as Manik Shamanik click
here .

We followed that with a UK CD re-release of the albums Power
of Seven and System Express
on November 13th 2000. We intend to rerelease the rest of our back catalogue
in stages next year.

If you haven't already you can visit our originalMP3
PAGE on this site and you can download substantial excerpts of unreleased
System 7 music.

We're also planning to release a compilation of all the tracks System7 has
made with Derrick May including
unrelesed material, remixes and remastered versions of the originals.

The last record system 7 released on our previous label - June 16th 98 - was,
on vinyl 12" only, a set of killer remixes of RING OF FIRE from the Golden
Section album. It was techno single of the week in Mix Mag Update, and techno
single of the month in Wax magazine.

This is now available on CD together with the track Borobudur from CD
NOW. (type System 7 in the search box)

Here's the lineup :-

SIDE A 1. The Advent
Touch III
2. The Advent Touch I (edit)
3. The Advent Touch II

Remixes
and Additional Production by THE ADVENT

SIDE B 1. Troniq Mix
2. Volcaniq Mix

Remixes by SYSTEM 7

Our most recent album before Seventh Wave was Golden
Section. Follow the link to find out more.